Oct 5, 2022
World Bank upgrades 2022 growth outlook for ASEAN-5 to 5.4% from 4.9%. In its most
recent economic outlook report for East Asia and the Pacific (EAP), the World Bank
upgraded its 2022 growth outlook for the ASEAN-5 to 5.4% from a previous projection of
4.9% made in April 2022. It also predicts that the ASEAN-5 will grow by 5.1% in 2023.
Viet Nam emerged as the fastest growing economy in the Asia Pacific in 2022, with the
World Bank projecting growth of 7.2% in 2022, and 6.7% in 2023. Elsewhere in Southeast
Asia, only the Philippines (6.5%), Malaysia (6.4%), and Indonesia (5.1%) were forecast
to exceed 5% growth in 2022.
Thailand is expected to grow at 3.1% and 4.1% in 2022 and 2023, compared with 2.8%
and 4.5% in China (see table below).
The World Bank attributed the relatively strong growth in the Asia Pacific to three factors:
the recovery of private consumption in the first half of 2022, the sustained global demand
for exports of manufactured goods and commodities from the Asia Pacific; and the limited
tightening thus far of fiscal and monetary policy. Headwinds facing the region include the
global economic slowdown as well as the impact of inflation.
